The Hotel Grand Chancellor in Adelaide is easy to miss if you’re doing the speed limit. The hotel sits on the corner of one of Adelaide’s main streets and a small back alley and unfortunately, it faces the back alley; only a small sign gives any indication as to the hotel’s location.

I parked my Jeep Patriot out the front of the hotel, in the alley. I looked around and immediately locked the car, it was 11pm on a Thursday and there was a drunkard projecting vomit over the wall 10 meters down from the hotel main entrance. So far so good.

Naomi greeted the lady at the desk as I dragged our large bag into the lobby. The girl took a moment to click out of what she was doing on the computer.

“Yes?” she asked.

The girl served us without a single distraction from her personality or sense of friendliness. We asked where we could park the car and were greeted with a blank stare. Naomi reminded the girl that we had been told there was parking when we had made the booking. The girl snapped to and remembered that they had off-site parking in a back street nearby. I already felt nervous; I would be parking an expensive hire car with a $3000 liability in off-site parking.

We left the luggage in the lobby and took the car to the carpark using the girl’s instructions. We pulled into yet another back alley off Adelaide’s notorious Hindley street. It was narrow enough that the Jeep was a shaky bet in the close confines. Graffiti ran the walls on either side of the alley.

We went back to the hotel, checked in and headed back out again to meet Naomi’s friend. The carpark was stashed neatly behind a raging beer garden and was playing host as the local ‘thursday-piss-up-wall-to-piss-on’ to a handful of young guys that I urged Naomi past quickly.

Naomi spotted a couple of young men coming into the carpark after us, they looked as though they were heading towards a red silvia that was parked slightly down-ramp from where we were walking. Both were white, tall, slim with athletic build, one had spikey blonde hair and the other dark hair. The blonde one was wearing jeans and a red shirt.

My first indication of trouble was when I heard “…f-ck these c-nts up.” I turned to look back, they were following us. I looked at Naomi, she had obviously heard them and had started jogging. I quickened my pace and looked back. They were running after us.

I took off, Naomi had already started sprinting before I’d turned around. There was swearing and threats coming from our pursuers. Naomi got to the car, I yanked her door open and she jumped in. Naomi only just managed to hit the door locks before they started yanking at the door handles. I got into the car just as the two hooligans started attacking the windows.

I give my thanks to Jeep, the force with which those two were hitting our windows was horrifying. One of them split a knuckle on the door-frame; I wiped the blood of the car later.

I sped off, I was ashamed of myself for being so terrified. They chased the car past the security booth and kept pounding the back of the car until I sped out of the back alley.

Naomi and I took a while to calm down.

The reaction of the Hotel? They refunded our $12 parking charge.

Not good enough and I wouldn’t recommend the hotel to anyone. The hotel’s decor is in no way enough to make up for its horrible service and location. My questions are these:

• Where was security? The security guard was not 10 meters away from this whole situation as we had parked close to the exit.
• My fiance was threatened physically in the carpark they provided, how is that acceptable?
• When we reported the incident, all the hotel could offer as alternative parking was an illegal spot in the alley in front of the entrance (tow away zone). Is that the best they could come up with?
• Do they actually think that a $12 refund is enough to say ’sorry your fiance was nearly beaten in our carpark’.

Liability aside, this is an utter failure of customer service. I’m truly sorry that this happened because I was looking forward to staying at this hotel. The Adelaide Hotel Grand Chancellor is in no way deserving of a 4 star rating from our experience. In my opinion I recommend it is avoided.